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Friday, November 26, 2010

Whew! I've been away for awhile and have really been missing my Pink Saturdays! Today I thought I'd do a little pink recap of our last couple weeks.

On Thanksgiving, Selah made her first Pink Pie!

She had a lot of fun measuring out the pink raspberry jam...Pouring the filling into the pie shell...And sampling a little!

Everyone enjoyed trying it out!

Here's Selah and Avalon enjoying a Thanksgiving tradition...nap time!

Every year, my husband treats me with a red poinsettia to kick off the Christmas season. This year when he brought in the beautiful gift, he also brought in a pink one! He said I needed one for Pink Saturday!

Here's some gifts I got in the mail from my UK BookCrossing friend, footymadgill! Fun stuff!

I made these ornaments for the kids this year:

The other day I was dinkin' around online and saw this gorgeous pink setting! This shows fireworks at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Vilnius, Lithuania. How awesome to know that the Lord I know so well is celebrated in such far off places that are unknown to me :)

Last night I had some homeschooling friends over for a Moms' Night. We had a great time visiting and snacking! I decorated my snack table in pink, silver and brown. It was really pretty! I found the last miniature pink Christmas tree for half off at Michael's yesterday morning so I was feeling pretty blessed by that!

I found a few other pretty things here and there around town to make the table sparkle.

AND...guess what just showed up at my door?!

When I was ordering my textbooks for this coming winter college term, I couldn't resist adding on this adorable pink sweatshirt!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Welcome to Vintage Thingie Thursday! I've not participated in awhile as I've been so busy with school work (I take college classes online) but I figured I'd have lots of time to read posts while I'm doing kitchen stuff so I decided to link up today! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here in the US and Happy Super-Duper Late Thanksgiving to the Canadians!! Ha!

I put together a post with several of my favorite Thanksgiving/fall decorations. My son, Michael (9), has been very concerned that I would decorate for Christmas too early and not have all our Thanksgiving decorations up for the big turkey day! Well, they're still up...but the Christmas boxes are sitting in the living room all ready to be opened up as soon as dessert is cleaned up!

Here are a few special things that I've put out for Thanksgiving. Most of these are actually new to the decoration stash this year. Since fall features my favorite colors: browns, greens and rust colors, several of these things are displayed somewhere in my house all year.

This cross stitched picture was done by my husband during our first year of marriage in 1998-1999. I was just beginning to decorate in sunflowers and he wanted to make something that would go with my things. This was back in the day when he was working part time and we had no kids so he had lots of time to do stuff like that! Now he's working 50-60 hour weeks and is busy taking college classes online and being a Daddy to 7 kids!! (Not to mention an EXCELLENT husband!! So thankful for Jamie!!) Anyway, I just put this in a frame last month...isn't that terrible?!

This neat box has a vintage-look Thanksgiving scene on it. My mom got it for me last year on my birthday---which is at the end of October. I really love it! The two gold turkey candle holders were found last week at my favorite antique store. The candles are from The Country House catalog.

I love this antiquated bird---no, it's not a Thanksgiving bird, but I put it in my Thanksgiving vignette to honor my new friend, Karla, who loves birds like I do! I am so thankful to have met her and her sweet family! She has really been a blessing to me these last couple of months. The candle is pumpkin spice from Walmart (a store that I rarely frequent now that Karla has turned me on to Fred Meyer---see, told you she was great!)

Here is a little photo of my Great-Grandmother Annabelle---she's the one whose dishes I have. (If you haven't been following, you can read about those here and here). The tea cup is a little thing I found in a box of antiques at our church yard sale. The napkin ring goes on my table here in a little bit!

Lastly, I wanted to show you my darling Thanksgiving set that I bought last year at a Christmas bazaar in Pendleton, Oregon. I just think this is adorable---it's one of my most precious Thanksgiving decorations!! (Yes, that is a pencil to the right in the Romanian vase...my son is decorating too!)

Would you like to know my family's top-secret heirloomed recipe for Date Nut Pudding? It's not really pudding---more like...stuff. Anyway, it's super-yummy and my kids' favorite part of our Thanksgiving meal! You can find it here. This recipe is definitely vintage...my Grandma Betty found it in a magazine in the '50s.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Welcome to another beautifully pink Pink Saturday! Here in the far north of Washington state, we're expecting snow---but so far, only experiencing rainy, rainy cold! Which means...I get to stay home and relax today! Yahoo!!! My husband has a three-day weekend and is planning on putting up Christmas lights while I relax on the couch and read Pink Saturday posts! The kids are having a free day to just play and hang out...it will be great!

Friday afternoon, my four-year-old Selah and I had a mother-daughter day. We went to lunch at a "fancy" restaurant (Denny's!!!) and then went scouting at Salvation Army and grocery shopping at Fred Meyer. While we were at lunch, as I was cutting up Selah's chocolate-chip pancake, I suddenly became very panicked about a neat pink tray that I'd seen at an antique store. I've been looking at this tray for almost a year now and just keep telling myself that I'd get it later. Today it occurred to me that the tray is Christmas-themed and will thus likely be snatched up by someone really soon!

Believe it or not, I stopped right there and actually PRAYED for "my" tray! I wanted it so bad and was panicking that it would be gone before I could go get it! So...even though Selah was super sleepy by the time we were done at Freddy's, we made a quick stop at the antique store and....LUCKILY....it was still there!!!

Isn't it cute? I just love the angels, the gold, the vintagy-ness of it all! :) I'm thinking 1950s. The tray was made by Nashco. There's a black one selling on Ruby Lane for $18 and mine was $12.95. Perfect start to my "Shabby Christmas" collection!

At Salvation Army, we found several cute pink things. My favorite find there was this neat covered serving dish---just in time for Thanksgiving!

It's difficult to see the pink in this photo but the roses are very pale pink. This piece is made in Japan by Sheffield fine china. It's nice and heavy with not a mark on it! It's about 9 or 10 inches across so can hold a good amount of stuffing, potatoes, hmm...well, at least a serving's worth for each of us! :) A little snooping online allowed me to find several more pieces to match it so I might just have to pick some up!

Another S.A. find was this cute rose mug. I just needed something pretty for my cocoa this winter! It was made in England by Duchess and is from the pattern called "Marie".

Here is a set of cute flowery hearts we found at S.A. I'm not so totally sure about the wire/twig/hangy-thingy...but I'll figure out something cute to do with them!

Lastly, this sweet little box is from S.A. too---but the Salvation Army in Pendleton, Oregon instead. I bought this while I was down visiting my mom in September and forgot to blog it! Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I really think it's adorable!

Hope you all enjoy your Saturday!

Sarah

PS: Do you have a Facebook account? Come vote for my kids in this art contest---you can vote once per day between now and Dec. 3rd. They have a chance to win $500 or even $1,000 which will be used toward books, games and supplies for our homeschool. We are currently in 3rd place but need all the votes we can get to stay there or move up! Thanks so much! Here's the link: http://www.mywhitecloud.com/Imagination/viewEntry.aspx?id=115

Friday, November 12, 2010

Yo! Are you down with Pink Saturday? Well this is the most happenin' place to be this Saturday so grab yourself a Slurpee and some Pop Rocks and prepare yourself for a totally bodacious time with Beverly and the Gang!

Our family joined the local home school co-op this fall and we are currently participating in a series of fun classes on Fridays. We start out the day with a chapel service and then each kid attends three classes of their choice---taught by parent volunteers---all wrapped up by noon. We've met a lot of great friends and had some awesome experiences. I teach two cooking classes and also assist in Selah's 4-year-old class.

Today was '80s dress up day and our family really got into the spirit of things. It was a lot of fun---though I've got a so-totally-not-rad headache from way too much ratting and hairspray!!

Selah was feeling electric with her neon colors and sideways ponytail, while Liam was sporting his preppy-cool look in plaids and tube socks.

Lynzie totally got the beat with her bright scrunchies, leggings and knit leg warmers. Awesome!Here's me and our friend Bria---We were way into the groove with our punk looks. We're showing off our awesome arm wear. I had on TWO watches...so rad. The last time I wore those two watches like that was when I was about Bria's age...ha! She's got some tubular scrunchies and bracelets on. I even won second prize in the costume contest! They gave me a chillin' white scrunchie...I was so stoked!

Lynzie and Bria are so not material girls---but they've got some pretty cool material going on here---for sure! They like totally match...I bet they'll make some friendship bracelets really soon!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Hello and Happy Saturday! Please join me for Pink Saturday with Beverly at How Sweet the Sound. There are lots of great pinks out there to enjoy in Bloggyland today!

You may remember that a few weeks ago (ok, maybe it was a couple months ago...I don't remember!) I posted a picture of my daughter, Lynzie, and her doll wearing the shawl that Lynzie had sewn for her. (You can find that one here) Well, today I'd like to show off the shawl she made for the doll's best friend!

This is Elizabeth Cole of the American Girl Doll Collection. She was Lynzie's first American Girl doll.

She's awfully proud...and I'm proud of her!

Another subject I've been featuring lately is BookCrossing. You can click the link in my "labels" list to the right if you're not familiar with that. Here are a couple more packages that I've received from friends for our annual gift exchange. This is a package that I received today from BookCrosser miumaumou of Finland:

She sent a pretty pink silk scarf, a couple of bookmarks (one is pink), some Celtic stickers, a postcard and two candy bars...and one of THOSE is pink--awesome, eh?

A couple days ago I received this package from BookCrosser Ossiefry of Portugal:

She sent a kitty card (pink), some BookCrossing book labels, a BIG chocolate mint candy bar (pink again!), some tea, and a handmade pink flower keychain! So sweet!

Every now and then, I like to feature Pink bloggers that I am extraordinarily impressed with! This week, I'd like to introduce you to two. First is Roselle from Seaside Rose Creations. She makes the most gorgeous things and sells them in her Etsy store! I was particularly drawn to this beautiful set of salt shakers that she "shabbied up" so prettily! She found them all rusted at Goodwill and look at them now!

Be sure and stop by her blog, as well as her Etsy store, to see her talent!

What I especially love about this display (aside from the glitter and general romance of it all) is the little candy corns she made from clay...how sweet is that!! Please visit Lisa at her blog to see more of her creativity.